The Department of Justice is executing a “Witch Hunt” against banks. Through the DOJ’s Civil Rights Division, Attorney General Eric Holder is forcing banks to “relax their mortgage underwriting standards and approve loans for minorities with poor credit as part of a new crackdown on alleged discrimination,” according to a published report by Investor’s Business Daily after reviewing court documents.

The DOJ has already extorted $20 million for weak and poor credit loans from banks that “settled out of court rather than battle the federal government and risk being branded racist.” The DOJ admits another 60 banks are already under “investigation.” Holder’s demanding the banks sign “non-disclosure” settlement agreements barring them from talking while allowing the DOJ to operate behind a curtain of secrecy.

The settlements already extracted from banks force them to make “prime-rate mortgages to low income blacks and Hispanics” with credit problems, even if they are living on welfare. According to IBD, the DOJ has ordered banks to advertise that minorities cannot be turned down for a loan “because they receive public aid, such as unemployment benefits, welfare payments or food stamps.” No job; no problem!

In other words, the DOJ is forcing banks to make loans to people that they know don’t qualify for them and likely won’t be able to afford to repay them, which is precisely the kind of failed public policy that precipitated the financial collapse and recession in 2008.

The DOJ ordered Midwest BankCentre to provide “special financing” in the predominantly black areas of St. Louis for fixed prime rate conventional home loan financing for borrowers “who would ordinarily not qualify for such rates for reasons including the lack of required credit quality, income or down payment.”

Eric Holder and the head of his Civil Rights Division, Tom Perez were both protégés of Janet Reno who launched a similar attack on banks in the early years of the Clinton Administration. That led to an expansion of the Community Reinvestment Act, CRA, and an explosion of forced lending to low-income, poor credit risk borrowers and the sub-prime mortgage industry that collapsed in 2008. Under the weight of massive guarantees of poor quality and defaulted mortgages, the federal government was forced to seize Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. To date about $150 billion has been required to bailout the two agencies to keep them solvent.

While Obama’s Justice Department dismissed a critical voter intimidation case against a radical black revolutionary group, it’s going after a pro life advocate the agency calls one of “the most vocal and aggressive anti-abortion protestors.”

Ironically, the administration claims that the pro life advocate, a Maryland man named Richard Retta, intimidated and interfered with women seeking abortions in Washington D.C.-area clinics much like members of the New Black Panther Party did to white voters during the 2008 presidential election. The difference is that the Black Panthers, clad in military attire, used weapons, racial insults and profanity to deter voters…

JW’s investigation also revealed that the official Obama appointed to head the DOJ’s civil rights division, Assistant Attorney General Thomas Perez, lied under oath to cover up the Black Panther voter intimidation scandal.

Now Perez is pursuing a pro lifer for violating a Clinton-era law (Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances Act) that prohibits any sort of interference with a woman seeking an abortion. Retta physically obstructed a patient and volunteer escorts attempting to enter the Planned Parenthood of Metropolitan Washington, according to a DOJ complaint filed a few days ago. He also “frequently walks very closely beside patients as they walk to the clinic” and he follows them into the street and oncoming traffic. Sometimes he yells at them, the feds claim.

Barack Obama’s political appointees are inept, incapable, and needlessly politicize the basic functions of whole segments of the federal government. That is not the assessment of firebrand conservatives but the result of a recent survey of high-placed career federal employees.

The survey, conducted by the Government Business Council, polled 148 Senior Executive Service members. These federal managers ranked Obama’s political appointees at only 2.0, down from the 2.3 rating enjoyed by the Clinton and Bush administrations. At least 10 percent more managers gave Obama’s appointees a D or F than failed Bush or Clinton’s teams. National Journal reports 20 percent gave such low marks to Clinton/Bush, as opposed to “more than 30 percent” for Obama.

More damning than the dry statistical data are the descriptions of federal employees of Obama’s team. According to one manager the political appointees are far more involved in day-to-day affairs, but “the effectiveness, skill and knowledge has dramatically decreased” since January 2009. Some said Obama’s appointees attempt to “break organizations.” One said the administration’s overseers “have a divide-and-conquer strategy, and there are way too many industry fingers allowed in decision-making.” Another said this led to “politicization of normal agency functions.”

Call it sex-change you can believe in. This author reported Tuesday that Barack Obama had held the first-ever White House transgender conference last Friday. The People’s House conducted this proud meeting in such complete secrecy that we know the identity of only one attendee, Mara Keisling of the National Center for Transgender Equality (NCTE), a group lobbying for “a comprehensive civil rights bill that protects people from discrimination based on gender identity.” The measure, which would forbid private individuals from refusing to do business with or rent a home to a cross-dresser, is but one of many extremist policies that earned NCTE a meeting with White House brass. The U.S. Civil Rights Commission is now planning to “hold its first-ever hearing to specifically address the civil rights of LGBT people.” Despite these “firsts,” the Obama administration has already advanced transgender interest groups through a series of executive fiats. If you don’t believe me, believe The Huffington Post. Itremarked that a recent housing proposal “marks the latest in a string of Obama administration attempts to enhance gay rights through federal regulation.” Some of the administration’s actions literally redefine the government’s definition of the family, stifle any opposition to gender confusion, and encourage schoolchildren to think of transgender practices as normal and mainstream (or else).

The First Transgender Appointee?

Last January, Obama named Amanda Simpson the Senior Technical Advisor to the Commerce Department. Simpson, who served as a test pilot and longtime employee of Raytheon before becoming a “woman,” sits on NCTE’s board of directors. The move was thought to be the first-ever transgender presidential appointment.

Last Thursday, Labor Secretary Hilda Solis (an Open Borders advocate) issued the department’s new harassment policy, which applies not only to the department but to all its “contractors at every level.” It bans….

The family of a drug-abusing illegal immigrant who died after being subdued with a stun gun is suing the U.S. government for using excessive force that led to his “wrongful death.”

The illegal immigrant, Anastacio Hernandez, lived in San Diego and was twice deported to his native Mexico. He became unruly when federal agents tried to deport him at the San Ysidro border crossing in May and an officer used a stun gun to control him. Hernandez ended up dying and the San Diego County coroner ruled it a heart attack with methamphetamine abuse and hypertension as contributing factors…

This week the illegal alien’s family filed a wrongful death lawsuit against the U.S. government in San Diego, alleging that immigration agents used excessive force to detain the 42-year-old construction worker as they escorted him to Tijuana. The complaint says agents repeatedly beat Hernandez and shot him several times with the stun gun.

The Mexican consulate in San Diego organized a press conference to announce the lawsuit and introduce the family’s attorney, who claims the illegal alien was “frightened” and “pleading for his life” when agents beat him. Mexican authorities have demanded a thorough investigation of the incident and the Obama administration has vowed to oblige.

Of interesting note is that the Justice Department has transferred the case to its civil rights division, which is headed by Thomas Perez, the former Maryland Labor Secretary that has long fought for the rights of illegal immigrants. Perez supports Mexican and Guatemalan-issued cards as valid identification in this country, favors discounted tuition for illegal immigrants at public colleges and universities and supports programs that advice illegal aliens how to deal with police.

Perez also served on the board of a controversial, taxpayer-funded day laborer center (Casa de Maryland) that helps illegal immigrants by operating employment facilities and offering free legal services.